As George Lakoff has expertly stated, issue-defining frames are powerful. Dobbs has chosen to frame immigration along fear lines. The ‘criminals’ sneak across border lines and bring disease, such as leprosy, and corruption. With their forged documents and criminal minds they snatch jobs away from clean-living Americans. The children of these criminals are allowed a desk and an education and all have a right to a hospital bed. This costs a ton of money that is coming out of the pockets of law-abiding citizens. For Dobbs, the “immigration problem” is a problem because of the immigrants and the agencies that oversee it. Dobbs’s career depends on fanning fear, not in reframing the issue to find solutions. I fully agree with Lakoff in that perhaps the immigration problem might be better framed in terms of a humanitarian crisis and even a civil rights crisis. In such frames, immigration would become a world issue that would allow the participation of entities such as UNICEF, the U.N., UNESCO and anyone else concerned with basic human dignity.

 The piece, entitled “The Framing of Immigration” by Lakoff and Ferguson, may be found at http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/immigration